Perfume: The Story Of A Murderer

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All Rise...

Judge Joel Pearce tried rubbing the DVD case on his wrists and underarms to pickup the scent, but found it doesn't work like those magazine inserts.

The Charge

"The soul of beings are their scent."

Opening Statement

There have been many films recently that have tried to convince us to side
with the murderers, monsters, and psychopaths. Few have done so in as convincing
a way as Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, the dazzling, sensual, and
disturbing film from German wunderkind Tom Tykwer. It's a film that delights,
shocks, entertains, and provokes deep personal reflection.

Facts of the Case

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (Ben Whishaw, Layer Cake) is born in a dirty, ugly
corner of Paris in the mid 1700s. Lucky to survive and taken in at a local
orphanage, Grenouille drifts through life invisible and silent, and none of the
people around him realize that he has a remarkable skill. He has a
near-supernatural sense of smell, a talent that could turn him into the best
perfumer in the world. After a difficult childhood, he finds haven under the
wing of Giuseppe Baldini (Dustin Hoffman, Stranger than Fiction), an ageing but
talented perfumer who teaches him how to capture essences in exchange for
brilliant new recipes. Something happens to Grenouille when he moves into Paris,
though, and discovers the scent of a beautiful girl. He becomes obsessed with
finding a way to capture the scent of a beautiful woman, no matter what it takes
to do so. Gradually, he becomes a systematic killer, working diligently on
creating his masterpiece. The last piece of that puzzle is the daughter of a
local magistrate (Alan Rickman, Harry Potter) named Laura (Rachel
Hurd-Wood, Peter Pan), a girl of
unmatched beauty. Grenouille must get her to complete his perfume.

The Evidence

There is something undeniably powerful about the scent of smell. No other
sense can take us back to another time and place quite so vividly, and no other
scent is quite as mysterious. Perhaps the power of scent comes from the fact
that it's the only sense that's sent to the brain directly without being
processed first. Either way, most of us have scents that touch us personally,
whether it's the smell of a childhood food or the scent a first lover wore. As
such, the making of perfume has always been a mysterious vocation, one
surrounded by the erotic and the exotic. For most of us, perfume just smells
nice, and has just a little power over us when used sparingly. For a perfumer,
though, each perfume is a careful and brilliant blend of twelve scents, placed
together into chords. It is an exclusive, arcane art that few practise, and
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer gives us a peek into that world.

Of course, there's a serious problem with a film about smell. Film is a
visual and aural medium, so director Tykwer needs to translate the world of
smell into vision and sound. He does so miraculously. Indeed, you can almost
think of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer as a visual perfume, carefully
constructed in the same way that a perfumer would combine scents. Initially, we
are struck by the visual world that has been created for this film. The Paris
created here is dingy and dirty beyond belief, to the point that even the most
hardened Dickens character would plead for a bath. Initially, it's hard to
imagine anything sensual or erotic in this world of dirt, mud, and grime. Tykwer
uses a brilliant color pallette, in which warm colors often burst out, but cool
colors sink into the murk and black. The camera moves skillfully, capturing
scents and sights with a keen eye. Tykwer has developed quite a bit since Run Lola Run. This film has the same
kinetic enthusiasm, but it is far more patient and refined. At any rate,
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a film that draws us in and grips us
by all our senses.

The middle chord here is the performances, which ask us to do the
impossible. There isn't much to like about the quiet, savage Grenouille.
Although he never seems malicious or evil, we cannot condone what he does, or
ultimately even appreciate it in the way we are meant to. At the same time,
there is something undeniably human and accessible about the character, and Ben
Whishaw injects the role with so much sincerity, intensity and innocence that we
can't help but feel for him—despite the disgust we have with what he does.
The cost of adapting a novel and creating such a rich, plausible character is
the sacrifice of the lesser parts. In this case, although Dustin Hoffman, Alan
Rickman and Rachel Hurd-Wood all give fine performances, we simply don't get
enough time with them to feel for them in the same way. Indeed, the middle of
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is rushed, though enough time is taken
to make sure that the film still makes sense for those who haven't read the
book. The cast manages to keep us watching closely, though, even after we've
adjusted to the brilliant visuals of the world. For a time, the film threatens
to become a typical thriller, but it gets back on track eventually, and leads to
a climax that's quickly becoming infamous.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is a surprising mix of stories,
which combines the fantastic nature of the hero with a realistic depiction of
18th Century France. It is part thriller, part drama and part horror, but never
feels strained at the seams. It balances carefully between all three, gracefully
leading us on an almost mundane and almost epic journey. Each viewer will come
away with something completely different, and I expect that it will spawn many
exciting conversations.

The real trick, though, is that Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is
neither straightforward nor easy to digest. This is an ugly, uncomfortable,
challenging film, and we are left with many questions and unsettling thoughts
long after the credits begin to roll. This is the base chord of the film, and
the scent that stays with us long after the film has ended. It's a film about
both love and obsession, and where those two things intersect. Perfume: The
Story of a Murderer might also be the ultimate outcast movie, as Grenouille
suffers through the challenges of his life. If he is right about himself, he has
no soul, which raises all kinds of issues. Can he be blamed for what he does? Is
a certain level of cruelty acceptable when a person has true creative genius?
How are we meant to understand the end? Like the best magic realism, Tykwer
reaches deep into fantasy, magic, and wonder, and draws out the truly human. We
are left contemplating our own lives, our own morals, and our own expectations
of the world. We long to have a skill as keen as Grenouille, but wonder whether
we would be willing to make the necessary sacrifices to become great. The end
result is a disturbing vision of what film can be, as well as a reminder that
the best films are crafted, not produced. From the first whif that we get of
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, it proves to be top quality.

The DVD has also been well produced. The video transfer shows the
limitations of the format, as there is a bit of compression visible in the crowd
scenes at the end. Still, it is a rich, beautiful transfer in the original ratio
of 2.35:1, though I suspect it would look fantastic in high-def. The sound is
more impressive, as a rich, deep sound stage is created around the viewer. The
dialogue is always clear, the music is warm and immersing, and ambient noise
helps pull us into 18th Century France. The real downfall of the disc is in the
special features. All we really get is a quick featurette, which is not nearly
enough. It's an entertainingly international production, as the German
production team leads British performers in a film about France. I would love to
see a special edition of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, loaded up with
a commentary track and a more impressive lineup of special features. Tom Tykwer
spent about five years working on this project, and his accomplishment is
deserving of a much more respectful edition.

Closing Statement

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer is one of the most tactile, sensual,
disturbing, unsettling film that I've seen in a very long time. Not everyone
will embrace its ambiguity and ideas, but adventurous viewers will love to get
lost in this world of scent, beauty, and horror. Although I hope we don't have
to wait another five years for Tykwer's next film, I have no doubt it will be
worth the wait. This is a truly beautiful and enchanting film.

The Verdict

Although Grenouille is unquestionably guilty, I will let him suffer his
natural fate.